Some defence experts are calling for airships to defend the Arctic north, saying technological advances have given them new practical usefulness amid challenges from hostile powers like China and Russia.
This case was most recently made by U.S. Lt.-Col. Cam Kovarek in her paper “Floating a different boat: operationalizing airships for homeland security in the Arctic.” The report published by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute says today’s lighter-than-air (LTA) platforms are much more versatile than the blimps, dirigibles, aerostats, and zeppelins of the past and argues LTAs are becoming a “viable” and “effective solution” to counter security challenges in the Arctic.
“They can be piloted by a crew, operate unmanned by remote direction, or be left tethered and unattended. Their design is inherently safe,” Lt.-Col. Kovarek wrote in the report.
“Hybrid airships can lift and transport weight at a much more efficient rate than airplanes and helicopters. Airships also don’t require long runways or large swaths of tarmac as they are capable of vertical take-off and can land on nearly any surface, including ice, snow, and water.”
Lt.-Col. Kovarek said she believes the airships could be ideal for Coast Guard use and could prove invaluable in disaster responses to vulnerable Arctic populations. Other potential uses include NATO maritime surveillance missions, NORAD air policing missions, and logistical support to current and future military installations.
“In the Arctic, the three maritime choke points along the Northwest Passage and Northern Sea Route—the Bering Strait, Baffin Bay, and the Greenland-Ireland-UK (GIUK) gap—are arguably the most important locations for increased monitoring,” she said.
“Should the United States military [and its allies] decide to operationalize airships, they may yet outmaneuver their strategic competitors with one slow, steady, and lighter-than-air solution.”
LTAs Poised to ‘Come of Age’
The idea sits well with Cameron D. Carlson, assistant director at the Center for Arctic Security and Resilience at the University of Alaska. He said LTAs “make a great deal of sense” and are “very practical” in their ability to “carry an incredible, immense amount of weight” with a low carbon footprint.“We’re only hurting ourselves right now not developing these types of air capabilities…[for] domain awareness and… to put infrastructure into places that are incredibly challenging for us to get access to right now,” he said in an interview.
“The only thing that’s holding it back is the fact that we’re still taking a look at the Hindenburg accident.”
The German dirigible Hindenburg crashes to earth, tail first, in flaming ruins after exploding at the U.S. Naval Station in Lakehurst, N.J., on May 6, 1937. The disaster, which killed 36 people after a 60-hour transatlantic flight from Germany, ended regular passenger service by lighter-than-air airships. AP Photo/Murray Becker
In 1937, the Hindenberg zeppelin burned up just above its New Jersey destination, an event captured on film and seen worldwide. Although the Hindenberg was designed for use with helium, the zeppelin was filled with hydrogen on its fateful final voyage–a lighter but more flammable element.
Eighty-five years later, Mr. Carlson says airships deserve another run.
“It’s really starting to come of age at this point,” he said.
“You now have lots of different compounds that can be used like carbon fibre, to basically add to the structural integrity of something without being as problematic when it comes to spawning sparks or fires.”
‘Trucks of the Sky’
Lt.-Col. Kovarek’s paper pointed to the capacity of the Lockheed Martin LMH-3, designed to haul 500 tonnes. In May, the company announced a new subsidiary, AT2 Aerospace, dedicated to airship development.In an email to The Epoch Times, AT2 Aerospace spokesperson Angele Parker likened airships to “the trucks of the sky.” She added they were “a more viable option than ships, which sometimes require deep water ports.”
“The public is becoming more attuned to the fact that airships can revolutionize transportation,” Ms. Parker said. “Stranded resources and communities are a concern for the Canadian government as well as their commitment to bend the emissions curve.”
“We just returned from the Québec Mines + Énergie conference and found that the public and institutions were most interested in the implications around mining and ESG, and of course, there is a lot of buzz around airships in support of humanitarian aid logistics,“ she added. ”Earlier this month, we attended the Arctic Circle Assembly in Iceland, where the discussion around airships was more around Arctic sovereignty and surveillance.”
University of Calgary political science professor Robert Huebert said he expects airships will soon see wide acceptance.
“When we get technologies and the means that will economically be viable, airships offer a tremendous advantage over traditional means of carrying heavy cargo,” he told The Epoch Times.
“We can probably expect a greatly increased use of airships in the Arctic region.”
Mr. Huebert said the U.S. will be the “risk-takers” in taking the lead to develop and utilize the airships, but Canada could follow, given its potential for stated defence objectives.
“If Canada is serious about the modernization of NORAD, one could presumably see the utilization of airships to carry some of the materials that will be necessary to go to the Arctic to start the construction of the open-the-horizaon radars and some of the other points of new surveillance capabilities,” he said.
“Can you have a dual purpose? Can you design one of these so that you have heavy-lift capabilities, take out your supplies, and then turn around and be utilized as a surveillance mechanism itself? This is something we are still trying to figure.”
Some other academic defence experts also see a place for airships.
Airships Have ‘Merit’
In 2018, Walter Dorn, professor of defence studies at the Royal Military College of Canada and the Canadian Forces College, co-authored a paper that explored the advantages LTA airships had over their heavier-than-air (HTA) counterparts for humanitarian responses. The cost to restock Canadian Forces Station Alert, Nunavut, could drop by 60 percent, he said.“The fuel consumptions of airships generally are much lower than those of HTA aircraft of comparative lift capacity, which equates to lower operational and freightage costs,” the paper said.
“When a proven system becomes available, the U.N. should take the modest risk of integrating it into a specific humanitarian operation where an airship’s operational characteristics would be valuable and could be tested.”
In an email to The Epoch Times, Mr. Dorn said that “airships are not a ‘solution’ to countering maritime threats, but they are likely to be part of a solution. Persistence surveillance and heavy lift are important to develop for the Arctic. So it’s important to explore the options.”
Steven L. Lamy, professor emeritus of International Relations and Spatial Sciences at the University of California, agrees airships have merit.
“The militarization of the Arctic is on its way,” Mr. Lamy said in an email.
“Russia is working with China to increase the extraction of resources and rebuild Cold War military installations. The Northern Sea Route is important to both economies, and Russia seeks to protect this trade route,” he wrote.
“The U.S. and many Arctic states that are also members of NATO are ramping up their defences. Airships would not surprise me, but sophisticated electronic surveillance devices are more likely to be used.”
Alistair D. Edgar, a Wilfrid Laurier University political science professor who co-authored a book on the Canadian defence industry, told The Epoch Times that drones were a more practical option for coastal and Arctic surveillance, though not cargo transport.
In “practical terms,” Mr. Edgar views military airships as “still speculative rather than likely,” and said the United States was more likely to advance them than Canada’s Department of National Defence (DND).
“I suspect that under current budgetary requirements, DND is not going to have funds to test and evaluate, purchase, and maintain a relatively ‘experimental’ capacity; and the Coast Guard likewise,” Mr. Edgar said.
